62 
THE BARI TRIBE. 
[chap. it. 
When a member of the family dies he is buried in 
the yard ; a few ox-horns and skulls are suspended on 
a pole above the spot, while the top of the pole is 
ornamented with a bunch of cock’s feathers. Every 
man carries his weapons, pipe, and stool, the whole 
(except the stool) being held between his legs when 
standing. These natives of Gondokoro are the Bari : 
the men are well grown, the women are not prepos¬ 
sessing, but the negro type of thick lips and flat nose 
is wanting; their features are good, and the woolly hair 
alone denotes the trace of negro blood. They are 
tattooed upon the stomach, sides, and back, so closely, 
that it has the appearance of a broad belt of fish- 
scales, especially when they are rubbed with red ochre, 
which is the prevailing fashion. This pigment is made 
of a peculiar clay, rich in oxide of iron, which, when 
burnt, is reduced to powder, and then formed into 
lumps like pieces of soap ; both sexes anoint them¬ 
selves with this ochre,, formed into a paste by the 
admixture of grease, giving themselves the appearance 
of new red bricks. The only hair upon their persons 
is a small tuft upon the crown of the head, in which 
they stick one or more feathers. The women are 
generally free from hair, their heads being shaved. 
They wear a neat little lappet, about six inches long, 
of beads, or of small iron rings, worked like a coat of 
mail, in lieu of a fig-leaf, and the usual tail of fine 
shreds of leather or twine, spun from indigenous cotton, 
pendant behind. Both the lappet and tail are fastened 
on a belt which is worn round the loins, like those in 
the Shir tribe ; thus the toilette is completed at once. 
It would be highly useful, could they only wag their 
tails to whisk off the flies which are torments in this 
country. 
The cattle are very small; the goats and sheep are 
quite Lilliputian, but they generally give three at a 
birth, and thus multiply quickly. The people of the 
country were formerly friendly, but the Khartoumers 
pillage and murder them at discretion in all directions ; 
